Monday Moments

Near the end of the summer we went on a bit of a crafting spree, as we do from time to time, and I thought I should share for those of you who, like me, are completely lost if a craft requires more than 5 supplies and 3 steps.

None of these are difficult – with a little help, my 2 (now 3) year old was able to do all of them, and my 5-year-old required minimal supervision once she knew the goal.  They all also filled more than 3 minutes of time, which is totally important to me because there is nothing worse than pulling out all the craft supplies and getting the table all sticky with glue for any activity lasting less than 12 minutes. (If you’re not a parent, 12 minutes may not sound like much, but it is plenty of time to entertain your kids while simultaneously pressing reset on the time they will be able to play by themselves when the craft is complete).

All of these supplies can be found at a decent Dollar Store – that’s where we get all the goods!  My only advice is to have a craft plan before you walk in, so you know if you actually need a bag of silk petals, 3 cartons of glitter, and rainbow-coloured feathers.  Some things will just languish forever in the “craft drawer”, an already dangerous place with a penchant for clutter.  Can you tell clutter gives me hives?

By a “craft plan” I just mean spend some time on Pinterest (or inside your own mind if it’s creative-like), and then tell your kids your ideas and let them pick a few, then add your personal favourite (mine was the skeleton) and go for a fun outing to the Dollar Store with a list.

Here are my super easy kid crafts, in all their imperfect glory!

1) Foam rocket ship with the kids inside – they LOVED this one.  In hindsight, we should’ve glued the flames the other way for proper takeoff!

What you need: Various colours of foam, scissors, glue, photos of your kids.

2) Cookie Monster – the kids loved sponge painting these guys.

What you need: Paper plate, cleaning sponge (to apply paint), blue paint, black construction paper, googly eyes (+ brown paper and pompoms or small buttons if you want to add a cookie), glue, scissors

3) Duck Pond – next time I think I might sponge paint these too, it looks a lot prettier than the marker job :)

What you need: Paper plate, yellow construction paper, googly eyes, feathers (optional), large popsicle stick, glue, scissors

4) Skeletons (can you tell which one is Gemma’s? ;))

What you need: Q-tips, black construction paper, white paper, glue, scissors

5) Guitars – I was amazed how cool elastic bands can sound, once we upgraded to the stronger paper plates and slightly looser elastics!  Our Dollar Store happens to be next door to the paint store I used to work at – how convenient for a handful of free stir sticks :)  These got the most post-craft-time use.

What you need: heavy duty paper plates, large elastic bands, paint stir sticks, glue (+optional stickers)

And if you’re all out of craft supplies and/or ideas, you can always get dressed in your winter finest (on one of the hottest days of summer) and build pillow snowmen.  But you don’t need a Mom to have that idea.

There you have it, some of the easiest preschool crafts around.  What are some of your favourite easy crafts?  Any good ideas for all that glitter I bought on a whim?